


Clarity

by NotClooLess



Category: Bunheads
Genre: Abc Family, College, F/F, Friendship, High School, Multi, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-10
Updated: 2014-01-10
Packaged: 2018-01-08 05:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1129114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotClooLess/pseuds/NotClooLess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Paradise isn't so boring after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clarity

**Author's Note:**

> *This is a rough draft the first chapter* *I do not claim ownership of these characters. I’m just filling in blanks with my imagination. Amy Sherman-Palladino created Bunheads, and we thank her.*

Cozette didn’t know exactly what she was expecting coming to Paradise. She’d literally been around the world with her family and, after the first few moves, she got to know that every stop was basically the same. Same problems, same school cliques, same homework, but nothing beyond that was ever worth getting invested in. There was always that next big move and they’d be on their way again. 

When her dad said they’d be moving this time from big city London to a place called Paradise, California Cozette had actually thought it was a joke. When she looked up the size of the town she’d thought it was an even bigger joke, but when her parents had reminded her (and Frankie) that they’d once survived 6 months in a remote Tibetan village she knew complaining would get her nowhere. Paradise it was.

Now 6 months into their stay, things weren’t exactly living up to Cozette’s expectations, whatever those were.  
Something was really getting to her. She was used to being “that new girl” and being the center of attention based on the fact that she and Frankie were sort of “aliens with no home planet” which intrigued people. That was a great comparison made by Frankie years ago on a late night flight from Paris to Sydney. It was weird but she guessed kind of accurate.

Here they were. As settled in as the Arroyo family ever gets. They had a great new house with a backyard big enough for an in ground pool, and walking distance to the beach. Cozette finally even had enough space for a mirror and barre in her room! All of that was well and good. Even the town itself was fine. It was tiny but cute, definitely quirky, and very very livable. It was probably the most at home she’d ever felt in a place, and at 17 years old that was saying something.

Still with the seemingly perfect set up at home and a not horrible school to attend, something still was getting to Cozette. It wasn’t the fact that her fellow students still treated her like a mini celebrity just because she’d been to a few prep schools and lived in 6 countries. It wasn’t that the closest thing she could get to a decent music or bookstore here was to drive an hour to the nearest Barnes and Noble. It wasn’t even that her drum machine had gotten lost in customs on the way over and still was “on its way” to California. 

No, it wasn’t any of those things. It was dance. Not dance it self mind you. Cozette had been dancing since she was 3. She even took a summer intensive at the Bolshoi Ballet and lessons at the Joffrey. No, Cozette and dance were great. She was great at dance… It was those girls- the girl.

Madame Fanny’s Paradise School of Dance was as charming as a small town studio could be. A single room loft barn style building with plenty of barre space (and a seating area often frequented by a sketching Frankie, channeling Degas no doubt.) It wasn’t grand, yet it was perfect. Cozette loved coming to class after school. She loved being able to have a space to call her own in the dressing room and to actually know her classmates names. She could let loose here. It was a special place.

Sasha Torres reigned supreme at Madame Fanny’s. The frequently cynical ballerina was clearly the leader of her small group of friends and it was made clear upon Cozette’s arrival that there was no room for her in their tiny circle.

She was used to this behavior from her peers, mostly girls who were either jealous or in imitated, sometimes both and wanted nothing to do with the new girl who would almost certainly steal their boyfriends (and their solos) if they let her get too close.

Normally Cozette shrugged girls like Sasha off. In another town she would be moved on before she had time to feel bad about not being included in a group. But she wasn’t moving on. Partly because her parents had decided to stay put until the twins graduated high school, but she mostly wasn’t moving on because another town didn’t have Melanie Segal.

Melanie was one of Sasha’s posse. Decidedly tall and thin she could easily be a model if anyone every came scouting in Paradise. It was the first thing Cozette noticed about her- before she noticed the other things. The way Melanie’s long brown hair looked down on the rare occasion she saw her outside of dance. The fury she could unleash on someone who dissed one of her friends (Poor Godot was probably still icing his rear. But that’s another story.) Cozette could go on and on- that was her problem.

It wasn’t that she didn’t know what was going on. She knew she totally liked Melanie in that, “I’m really into you” sort of way. It was just that she didn’t know what to do with that information. She’d had boyfriends in the past of course and even now was being pursued by the most popular guys in school. The attention felt nice. They were nice. Wasn’t that enough?

Cozette knew the answer to that question. NO.

It wasn’t enough that she was getting all A’s this semester. It wasn’t enough that Frankie had just landed them their first stateside DJ gig at the roller derby rink or that she’d nailed her audition for the dance school’s production of Swan Lake. It wasn’t even enough that Mitch Alvarado (apparently the Mitch Alvarado) had asked her to be his girlfriend after 4 successful dates. Cozette knew these were all great things. So why was she so convinced something was off? Why did she make sure to drag Frankie to trivia at the Oyster Bar last night with derby flyer in hand? She knew the answer to those questions too and it was starting to become a problem.


End file.
